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Heritage Lottery Fund to invest £3m in local history projects

The Hanby and Barret community group is funding The Raleigh project, which will deliver two digital platforms to remember the Raleigh factory

The Sharing History fund will enable community groups to commission people who can help them to tell their local stories through digital, print and exhibition design.

The scheme, which will have a dedicated annually renewed fund pledging grants of between £3,000 and £10,000, has been given the green light following the success of its forerunner All Our Stories, a one-off HLF grant scheme.

All Our Stories is bringing several projects to bear, including The Raleigh project, commissioned by arts organisation Hanby and Barret to commemorate the Raleigh Bicycle Company’s factory, which made way for The University of Nottingham’s expanding campus.

The Raleigh project will see an online archive created where former workers will be able to deposit their photographs and written and recorded memories, such as trialling the first ever Chopper.

Andy Barrett, who is on the steering group for Hanby and Barrett, says that the University has been commissioned to develop the website, but designers are still needed to make an app which will give visitors to the factory site a virtual impression of life at the factory.

Meanwhile the Lost Pubs of Chapel Street is a Salford-based community-driven digital and social media project aiming to capture the changes, but also show how some pubs have adapted and thrived as music and arts venues.

Historian Michael Wood, the HLF’s champion for the new programme says, ‘We have already seen just how much people want to be able to delve into their local history and what those fascinating explorations can reveal. Community projects from last year are now underway ranging from school children discovering how Sheffield FC, the world’s oldest football club, has helped shape the modern game to looking at the lost pubs of Salford.’

The HLF says the new Sharing Heritage projects are expected to cover a wide range of subject matter including local archeology, a community’s cultures and traditions, conserving sites or items of local significance and holding festivals and events to commemorate the past.